Terrapin

Terrapins or water tortoises are a group of several species of aquatic reptile of the order Testudines living primarily in fresh or brackish tidal waters, but have the clawed feet of tortoises and not flippers of marine turtles.[1][2] In American English, they are referred to as marsh, pond, or tide-water turtles, with some species called pond sliders as well. Whereas tortoises are almost strict herbivores and frugivores — largely feeding on flowers, grasses, leaves, and fallen fruit — a great many terrapins are mainly carnivorous — largely feeding on amphibians, arthropods, freshwater fish, and molluscs — though some are herbivores. Terrapins are identified primarily with the taxonomic family Emydidae,[1][2] but do not form a single taxon and may not be closely related, with some belonging to the families Geoemydidae, Pelomedusidae, Podocnemididae, and Chelydridae. Though primarily aquatic, terrapins do relatively frequently come to land for many reasons, but particularly to warm up by basking in the sun.

## Contents

* 1 Etymology
* 2 Species
* 3 Conventions
* 4 See also
* 5 References

## Etymology

Diamondback terrapin

The name "terrapin" is derived from the word in the Algonquian languages: torope[3] that referred to the species Malaclemys terrapin, the diamondback terrapin. It appears that the term became part of common usage during the colonial era of North America and was carried back to Great Britain. Since then, it has been used in common names for freshwater species of Testudines in the English language, but is not as widely used in North America.[4]

Terrapins gave their name to a colloquialism for the War of 1812 — 'the Terrapin War' — because, through the blockade, the United States was shut up tight in its shell like a terrapin against the British invasionary forces.[5]

## Species

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species — also known as the 'IUCN Red List' or 'Red Data Book' — inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological species,[6] place most species terrapins as "threatened with extinction" — between vulnerable species and critically endangered.

Terrapin species include:

Family  | Genus  | Species
(subspecies)  | common name  | Native natural habitat range  | IUCN Red List status  | Current population trend  | Notes

|
|
|
|
|
|
|

Chelydridae | Chelydra | acutirostris |

* South American snapping turtle

* South America

|  |  | (W. Peters, 1862)
Chelydridae | Chelydra | rossignonii |

* Central American snapping turtle
* Mexican snapping turtle
* Yucatán snapping turtle

* Central America

| VU IUCN |  | (Bocourt, 1868)
Chelydridae | Chelydra | serpentina |

* common snapping turtle

* southeastern Canada
* United States
* eastern US
* southeastern US

| LC IUCN |  | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Chelydridae | Macrochelys | temminckii |

* alligator snapping turtle

* United States
* Florida Panhandle
* western Illinois
* southern Indiana
* southeastern Iowa
* southeast Kansas
* western Kentucky
* Louisiana
* west Michigan
* Missouri
* western Tennessee
* east Texas

| EN IUCN |  | a pet in the exotic animal trade that often grows too large and exceeds the abilities for owners to care for and has become an seriously destructive invasive species in many places across central and southern Europe and South Africa
Emydidae | Actinemys | marmorata |

* western pond turtle

* western United States
* Mexico

| VU IUCN |  |
Emydidae | Clemmys | guttata |

* spotted turtle

* southern Canada
* Ontario
* eastern United States
* the eastern Great Lakes
* east of the Appalachian Mountains

| EN IUCN |  |
Emydidae | Emydoidea | blandingii |

* Blanding's turtle

* North American Great Lakes
* parts of the US Great Plains
* New England coastal lands

| EN IUCN | decreasing  |
Emydidae | Emys | orbicularis |

* European pond terrapin

* central Europe
* parts of northern Africa
* western Asia

| NT IUCN |  |
Emydidae | Glyptemys | muhlenbergii |

* bog turtle

* eastern United States

| CR IUCN |  |
Emydidae | Glyptemys | insculpta |

* wood turtle

* northeastern United States

| EN IUCN |  |
Emydidae | Malaclemys | terrapin |

* diamondback terrapin

* North America
* Bermuda

| VU IUCN |  |
Emydidae | Trachemys | scripta (elegans) |

* red-eared slider
* red-eared terrapin

* southern United States
* northern Mexico

|  |  | a popular pet and an invasive species in many places
Emydidae | Trachemys | scripta (scripta) |

* yellow-bellied slider
* yellow-bellied terrapin

* southeastern United States
* Florida
* southeastern Virginia

|  |  | a popular pet and an invasive species in many places
Geoemydidae | Batagur | affinis |

* southern river terrapin

* southeast Asia
* Cambodia
* Indonesia
* Malaysia

| CR IUCN |  |
Geoemydidae | Batagur | baska |

* northern river terrapin

* Cambodia

| CR IUCN |  |
Geoemydidae | Batagur | borneoensis |

* painted terrapin

* southeast Asia
* Brunei
* Indonesia
* Malaysia
* Thailand

| CR IUCN |  |
Geoemydidae | Batagur | dhongoka |

* three-striped roofed turtle

* south Asia

| CR IUCN |  |
Geoemydidae | Batagur | kachuga |

* red-crowned roofed turtle

* south Asia

| CR IUCN |  |
Geoemydidae | Batagur | trivittata |

* Burmese roofed turtle

* Myanmar

| CR IUCN |  |
Geoemydidae
(Bataguridae) | Mauremys | caspica |

* Caspian turtle
* striped-neck terrapin

* western Asia
* Caspian Sea
* Azerbaijan
* Georgia
* Iran
* Turkey
* eastern Mediterranean

| NA IUCN |  |
Geoemydidae
(Bataguridae) | Mauremys | leprosa |

* Spanish pond turtle
* Iberian pond turtle
* Mediterranean pond turtle

* Iberia
* Portugal
* Spain
* northern Africa
* Morocco
* Algeria
* Tunisia

| VU IUCN |  |
Geoemydidae
(Bataguridae) | Mauremys | mustica |

* yellow pond turtle

* eastern Asia
* coastal China:
* Zhejiang
* Fujian
* Guangdong
* Hainan
* Vietnam
* Taiwan

| CR IUCN | decreasing  |

* inhabits ponds, creeks, swamps, marshes, and other bodies of shallow, slow-moving water
* omnivorous, feeding on insects, fish, tadpoles, and vegetable matter such as leaves and seeds

Geoemydidae | Mauremys | rivulata |

* Balkan terrapin
* western Caspian turtle

* The Balkans
* Croatia
* Montenegro
* Albania
* Greece
* Bulgaria
* Turkey
* Cyprus

| LC IUCN |  |
Geoemydidae | Melanochelys | trijuga |

* Indian pond terrapin
* Indian black turtle

* south Asia
* India

|  |  |
Geoemydidae | Morenia | ocellata |

* Bengal eyed terrapin
* Burmese eyed turtle
* Burmese peacock turtle

* Myanmar
* Yunnan, China

|  |  |
Geoemydidae | Rhinoclemmys | rubida |

* Mexican spotted terrapin
* Mexican spotted wood turtle

* Mexico

|  |  |
Geoemydidae | Siebenrockiella | crassicollis |

* black marsh turtle
* smiling terrapin

* southeast Asia

| EN IUCN |  |
Pelomedusidae | Pelusios | castaneus |

* West African mud turtle
* swamp terrapin

* central Africa
* western Africa

| LC IUCN |  |
Pelomedusidae | Pelusios | seychellensis |

* Seychelles mud turtle

* The Seychelles

| EX IUCN |  |
Pelomedusidae | Pelusios | sinuatus |

* serrated hinged terrapin

* southern Africa

| LC IUCN |  |
Pelomedusidae | Pelusios | subniger |

* black-bellied hinged terrapin

* central Africa
* western Africa

| LC IUCN |  |
Platysternidae | Platysternon | megacephalum |

* big-headed turtle

* southeast Asia
* Cambodia
* China
* Laos
* Myanmar
* Thailand
* Vietnam

| CR IUCN |  |
Podocnemididae | Erymnochelys | madagascariensis |

* Madagascan big-headed turtle

* Madagascar

| CR IUCN |  |

1994 IUCN Red List categories (ver. 2.3) for species not reassessed since 2001

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

## Conventions

Template:IUCN statuses

Conservation status codes listed follow the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Range maps are provided wherever possible; if a range map is not available, a description of the range is provided. Ranges are based on the IUCN Red List for that species unless otherwise noted. All extinct species or subspecies listed alongside extant species went extinct after 1500 CE, and are indicated by a dagger symbol "".

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

## See also

* Reptilia
* Crocodilia
* Rhynchocephalia
* Squamata
* Testudine
* Tortoise
* Turtle

* Wildlife conservation
* Conservation status
* CITES
* The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
* IUCN Red List
* Category:Species by IUCN Red List category

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 (in en) The Chambers Dictionary (12th ed.). Chambers Harrup. 2011. p. 1611. ISBN 978-0-550-10237-9.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 (in en) Collins English Dictionary. Harper Collins. 1991. p. 1592. ISBN 0-00-433286-5.
3. ↑ "Terrapin" www.merriam-webster.com, accessed 9 November 2021
4. ↑ Farlex Trivia Dictionary 2012 - cited in https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Testudine
5. ↑ (in en) Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable. Cassell & Co.. 1999. p. 1164. ISBN 978-0-304-35096-4.
6. ↑ "Background & History". https://www.iucnredlist.org/about/background-history.

Short description: Index of animals with the same common name

This page is an index of articles on animal species (or higher taxonomic groups) with the same common name (vernacular name). If an internal link led you here, you may wish to edit the linking article so that it links directly to the intended article.

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